Do you have some words which you find difficult to say? Do you know which sounds are different in your accent? Whatever your pronunciation difficulties, understanding the approaches to changing pronunciation can help you address your goals. While accented speech is comprised of several elements, pronunciation is one aspect which many speakers and listener can identify as sounding different. Some sounds in American English are infrequent or nonexistant in other languages and must be learned and practiced in a hierarchy to develop the sound. Others are easier to say, but hard to use in running speech. Understanding the levels of practice is an important step to changing your speech. 1. Sound level (phonemes): This level is single sounds. Practicing at this level is usually only necessary when the sound is new to you, but knowing how to say a sound by itself correctly is helpful and can be used as a tool when working at more challenging levels. Use the recordings below to try some of the American English phonemes which are most frequently mispronounced in accented speech.
2. Syllable level: This level is target sound plus an additional sound. If the target is a consonant, the additional sound is a vowel, and vice versa. While two sounds together can make a word, syllables can also be part of a word or just a nonsense word. Practice at this level is useful when breaking down difficult words, integrating a difficult target into words, or changing a habitual pattern with the target sound. The recording below demonstrates how to add various vowels to the challenging target voiceless th (IPA symbol: /θ/). 3. Word level: This level is the target sound in real words. The target could be in the beginning, middle or end of the word (initial, medial or final position). Depending on your native language, you may only need to practice one word position. Sometimes speakers have an accurate phoneme in the initial position, but make errors when the target sound is in word-final position. For example, you may be able to use your voiceless th sound correctly in the word "think," but have an error pattern on the word "teeth." You can try some words with initial, medial and final voiceless th sounds using the recordings below. 4. Phrase or Sentence level: The next step to changing a pronunciation pattern is to use the target sounds at the phrase or sentence level. Once you have achieved accurate productions at the word level, you can imitate or create sentences using the same words you practiced at the word level. This is more challenging because you are having to hold the new target in your mind as you say the sentence. If needed, you can practice at different levels within this step. Easiest, imitate a sentence with the target word at the beginning of the sentence. Next easiest, imitate a sentence with the target word in the middle or end of the sentence. Next, create your own sentence with the target word at the beginning of the sentence, and last, create a sentence with the target word in the middle or the end of the sentence. Use the recordings below to try the target voiceless th in imitated sentences. Then make your own sentences with voiceless th words. 5. Conversational level: This is the goal and the final step in changing pronunciation. Sometimes transitions between steps 4 and 5 are necessary, such as practice while reading aloud. There are many techniques to moving from the sentence to the conversational level, including raising awareness of where your targets occur and repeat motor practice to gain automaticity.
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One of the most common errors for those learning the American accent is the vowel in the words it and him, referred to on this site as “Vowel I" or /ɪ/. This sound is frequently confused with the vowel in the words eat and seem, “Vowel ee or /i/.” These two sounds are similar, but Vowel ee /i/ has a more exaggerated smile posture for the lips, and the front of the tongue is slightly higher in the mouth. Vowel ee /i/ is a tense vowel, meaning that the muscles in the face are engaged. Vowel I /ɪ/ is a lax vowel, meaning the lips and face need to be relaxed. Practice going from one sound to the next to feel the different postures for your lips and tongue. Use the video to help you. One way to solidify the distinction is to practice with minimal pairs, or words that differ only by this vowel sound. Listen to the following sets of words, and practice making a clear contrast between vowel ee /i/ and vowel ɪ. For even more practice, use these short phrases which contrast the ee and I vowel sounds.
Some English speakers leave off the “h” sound at the beginnings of words. This is typical of some British English accents, Nigerian English, speakers in Australia and New Zealand, Caribbean English and some Indian English accents. The American accent almost always pronounces the “h” sound, with a puff of air. You can hold your hand in front of your mouth to feel whether the air is flowing if you’re not sure whether you’re making this sound or not. One way to practice adding this sound to your words if your accent tends to leave it off is to say pairs of words with and without initial h. Listen to the words below. Say each pair, making a clear distinction between the word with the “h” and the word without. Then try the rest of the list for extra practice.
When the letters “ng” are together at the ends of words, they sound different than when they are in the middle of the word. In the middle of the word, they are usually pronouncing with the “ng” sound, plus a hard “g” to start the next syllable. For example, the words hunger and finger can be broken into two syllables: hung+ger and fing+ger. At the ends of words, however, the “ng” combination only makes the single sound “ng.” A common accent error in American English is to add an extra sound to the end of ng, similar to ng in the middle of words. This makes words sound like thingk or doingg, and is a noticeable error. To change this accent pattern, try listening to the following pairs of words. Notice how the ng words do not have a stopped k or g sound at the end. Next, try saying the words, making a distinct difference between the nk word and the ng word.
Many words in English begin with an “s-blend,” which is when the letter s is followed by another consonant. For example, the words state, space, school, and special all begin with s-blends. Some non-native speakers of English have difficulty with combining consonants because they don’t use this construction in their native language. In Spanish, words with these sounds begin with an “e,” such as especial, escuela, and estado. Consequently, a common accent pattern in English is to add an additional “e” sound before s-blend words. Listen to the following pairs of words. Note that the words are similar, but the Spanish word has and "es" and the English word has only "s."
To avoid this problem, start by practicing s-blend words alone. Then slowly add words before your s-blend word, being careful to start your target word with an “s,” not an “es.” It might help you to draw out the “s” sound a little longer. After saying s-blend words by themselves, slowly add more words to your phrase until you are able to say the s-blend word correctly in a sentences. For example, use the recording below to try this exercise:
special special service provide special service we will provide special service |
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